TUALATIN – A savvy performance by all-state sophomore point guard Love Lei Best and a breakout game from sophomore guard Bella Amens propelled reigning 6A girls basketball champion Tualatin to its most important win of the season Friday night.
Needing a home victory over No. 2 West Linn to claim the outright Three Rivers League title, the top-ranked Timberwolves never trailed in posting a 61-53 win in the regular-season finale.
Best scored 14 of her 19 points in the first half and Amens took the torch in the second half, scoring 14 of her 16 points, as Tualatin (23-1, 12-0) completed a season sweep of the second-place Lions (21-3, 10-2). Senior guard Maaya Lucas scored 12 points and sophomore forward Kendall Dawkins added nine points and 10 rebounds.
It's the fourth consecutive league title for the Timberwolves and comes one year after they had to share the title with West Linn. It didn't come easily, though, as the physical Lions put up a fight in a rough-and-tumble affair.
“They're a really good team, so I feel like it's always going to be a street fight, a battle out there against them,” said Best, who fouled out in the final minute. “It just makes us all better.”
Tualatin now turns its attention toward the postseason and defending its state title. The Timberwolves are still coping with the loss of Portland State-bound senior post Alex Padilla, who suffered a torn ACL in a 63-52 win at West Linn on Feb. 3.
“We definitely have some things to shore up and get better at, but I feel like we're confident,” Best said. “This was a big game for us, just a big test to see where we are without Alex. But I was proud of us. Bella stepped up and hit some big shots.”
Tualatin coach Wes Pappas said that Amens is among several players that the team is counting on to compensate for the loss of Padilla.
“It's tough without Alex. She's the best defender I've ever had,” Pappas said. “We lost the best defender in the state. She's a once-in-a-decade type of kid. We don't have that now. We're having to figure that out, doing it with multiple kids.”
Best scored six points as Tualatin finished the first half on an 11-2 run to open a 28-18 lead. Then Amens took over at the start of the third quarter, scoring eight points as the lead grew to 39-25.
“It just kicked in, the adrenaline,” Amens said. “Having this really big game, it was a big push for me.”
Starting in place of the 6-foot Padilla, the 5-7 Amens doesn't have the same size, but she energizes the team with open-court speed. Most of her baskets came in transition on layups and pull-up jumpers as she repeatedly beat the Lions up the floor.
Best and Dawkins made a big splash as freshmen in Tualatin's state-title run, but Pappas had said that the class had another dynamic player in the wings, referring to Amens, a reserve last season.
“Bella is just coming,” Pappas said of Amens, who scored a career-high 22 points against Tigard on Jan. 22. “She's a superstar in the making. I knew we had a really special kid with her. She's a sophomore, and it took a little bit. She'd get nervous in games as a freshman.
“She has now risen up to where she's having this type of game against that type of team. Nobody knew about her, but I think now people know, in a game this big to have that kind of performance.”
Amens is settling into the expanded role.
“With my team, they're really supportive,” Amens said. “They really help me get ready to fill that role. Definitely, stepping up is a really big thing. Being more mature about it, like, 'I have to step up for the team so we can continue to win.'”
Tualatin took its biggest lead at 44-29 when Best banked in a three-pointer late in the third quarter. West Linn rallied, though, behind junior guard Kaylor Buse, who scored 21 of her 27 points in the second half.
The Lions got as close as 55-50 on a rebound basket by senior guard Reese Jordan with 1:24 left, but Tualatin iced the game as Lucas, Dawkins and Amens each made two free throws.
“I'm proud of our fight,” Buse said. “A lot of things didn't go our way – a lot of foul calls, a lot of shots didn't hit tonight – but I'm just proud of the way we fought, the way we stuck together.”
Like in the first meeting between the teams – when Tualatin led by 29 points in the third quarter – the Lions seemed to crank up their intensity too late.
“We have to play with the same intensity all four quarters,” Buse said. “We kind of struggle to do that sometimes. But again, a lot of shots we missed tonight, we don't usually miss.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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